Apocalypse Meow is an adventure fanfiction of the anime movie, The Cat Returns written by Dr. Vorlon
of fanfiction.net. It was published on May 11, 2006 and completed on November 9, 2007.
Haru is bored out of her mind, as from her perspective, everything's going fine. "No more sleeping past [her] alarm clock, no more worrying what Machida thought of her, and most of all...no more sycophantic felines going out of their way to please her, only to have the opposite effect." Facing the feelings of missing her friends, especially Baron, she wonders when she could visit them again. What prevents her is that she isn't in need of help. Yet.
Meanwhile, Hiromi is bored because nothing exciting is going on for her. Returning home with a lacrosse stick on her hand (courtesy of the piles of lacrosse sticks found on her doorstep one day), she unexpectedly wishes something really cool would happen, that she could go someplace amazing, that she could use her skills to be something special. No more than a minute later, her adventure begins.
You may read the fanfiction here.
If you were looking for the American version of Cat Shit One, then you may want to check that page.
The work contains examples of:
- All Just a Dream: Hiromi's experience from the Cat Kingdom is supposed to be this for her. She found out anyway in the end after seeing Natoru.
- Ascended Extra: Hiromi, in contrast to the original movie, has a very prominent role this time around. Same goes for Natoru who becomes somewhat of a sidekick to Hiromi.
- And the Adventure Continues: Implied (See Call-Back), although Haru is less than pleased.
- Beige Prose: Each chapter is quite short with very simple wording. The brevity is balanced with a lot of witty narration though.
- Better than a Bare Bulb: For starters, Haru noticing how the crows carried her weight when she was being brought back down to the school's rooftop despite being fully human again.Toto: Haru. you're hanging out with a living stone crow, a living cat doll, and a talking pig-cat, and you want things to make sense?
- Call-Back: In the ending, Natoru shows up in the human world to thank Haru and Hiromi for helping them defeat Mechphisto. As a result, he says the same speech that he said to Haru when the Cat King was thanking her for saving the Prince.Natoru: Starting tomorrow, you shall be visited by happiness and good fortune as a marvellous array of—
Haru: No! Shut up! Shut up! I'm not hearing this! No, no, no, no, nooooooooooooooo! - Creator's Culture Carryover:
- Though the story is based in Japan and the characters are Japanese, to an extent, considering the story mostly takes place in the Cat Kingdom and Haru and Hiromi are the only humans featured in the main plot, characters constantly make a lot of American pop culture references. For instance, Muta makes several comments regarding the widely lambasted movie, Gigli, Toto opting out of visiting the Cat Kingdom because he'll be "Toto McNuggets before [he sets] foot on the ground", Nemo's erratic behavior has Haru thinking he's one step away from muttering "My precious", among other things.
- A brief gag with Natoru's license has it bearing his name in English as well as a Mysterious Middle Initial. Justified, since it's not like feline naming conventions have to follow Japanese/real-life ones.
- Down the Rabbit Hole: For Hiromi, she simply wishes for something to happen and she was quickly in the Cat Kingdom thanks to the magic lacrosse stick she held as explained by Natoru.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Haru's nightmare of the Cat Kingdom in flames with Yuki calling out for her name. It all turns out to be Mechphisto's doing thanks to the kats' Evil Plan coming to fruition, even if it ultimately backfired on them.
- Dying Dream: Haru gets one after not awakening from fainting from Muta's gas. She manages to pull through.
- Evil All Along: Lune has hypothesized that there is a traitor in the Cat Kingdom. Turns out it was Colonel Whiskers who told the kats of the Hollow Lands the whereabouts of Lune and Yuki in order for them to be captured. He plans to end the bloodline lest that Prince Lune [and his children] might Turn Out Like His Father.
- Hammerspace: Lampshaded with this passage:And so Natoru whipped out an oversized map of the labyrinth. Where exactly he whipped it out from was anyone's guess, for the unclothed kitty did not possess any pockets, nor was he carrying any sort of bag. Yet Hiromi never bothered to question this...
- Here We Go Again!: The ending implies that Natoru will be sending an entourage of cats to show their gratitude (like in the original film) for Haru and Hiromi saving the kingdom, much to the former's dismay.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The certain narration can occasionally stumble upon this. Then there's this one line by Haru.Haru: Oh, poor Muta! He never seems to catch a break in these things. Listen to me, I'm starting to sound like a fanfic reviewer!
- The Lost Lenore: Louise of Whisper of the Heart is referenced as an old flame of Baron's whom he mentions has fallen into despair and hopelessness after being abducted by the kats.
- Mega Neko: Muta, after ingesting the enlargement cookies meant for Haru to bring her back to normal size. However, this had the side-effect of turning Muta's speech into Hulk Speak, and Haru intones she's lucky that she didn't eat them.
- Mysterious Middle Initial: Parodied. Natoru shows Hiromi his license bearing the words "Natoru T. Cat, licensed toady". When Hiromi asks what the "T." stands for, Natoru answers with "The", making his full-name Natoru the Cat. Why the license is written in English is left unsaid.
- Original Character: Colonel Whiskers, Nemo the eccentric cat, and the "kats" who are some type of shadow-like beings and serve as the main antagonists, in addition to Colonel Whiskers working with said kats.
- Our Monsters Are Different: The kats are described to be black silhouettes of cats, with their glowing red eyes being their only visible features.
- Put on a Bus: The Cat King and his advisor (Natori) are mentioned to have retired, after aiming to do so at the end of the original movie.
- Reference Overdosed: Characters make a lot of pop culture references casually. There is Muta and the Running Gag about his mispronunciation of the word Gigli, for one. This also extends somewhat to the author's easy-going, snarky narration style.
- Shout-Out: One of the guards is telling a story about his cousin who has a boss that runs a delivery service via Flying Broomstick.
- The End... Or Is It?: Parodied and Played for Laughs. The story is capped with a "The End?" after Haru cuts off Natoru thanking them for saving the cat kingdom, afraid that the events from the first film is going to happen again.
- We Are Not Going Through That Again: The ending has Natoru thanking Haru for saving the Cat Kingdom and says, word-for-word, what he said to her when Haru saved Prince Lune in the first film. She is predictably not interested to hear the whole thing.
- World of Chaos: Land of chaos, rather. There's a certain place in the kingdom called "The Hollow Lands".
